Monday, August 27, 2012

Monday Matrimony...a church planting edition

Yesterday I was so thrilled to get to be there to celebrate the Grand Opening of a new church in Palo Alto called C3 Silicon Valley. Adam & Keira Smallcombe, who pastor the church, moved to California from Australia just 6 months ago! It was amazing to see the team that God has brought together in this short time to launch this church.

There were so many things that blew me away yesterday... the environment was warm and friendly, the worship time was powerful, the preaching was captivating. You could truly feel the Spirit of God working in that room! It was a home run as far as Grand Openings go. If you live anywhere near Palo Alto, you really need to check this church out!

But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was watching the way Keira interacted with Adam throughout the morning. Before and after the service, both Keira and Adam were mingling with the crowd, meeting people, and welcoming guests. They were rarely together, but they were both fully engaged.

Then, during the service they stood up together to welcome the crowd, talk about some of their core values as a church, and lead in a time of prayer. It was so obviously clear that they are a team. There was oneness of heart and vision. There was love and respect in their eyes as they looked at each other. There was a sense of shared excitement as this dream that God had put in their hearts was finally becoming a reality.

There is nothing more beautiful to me than a wife who loves, supports, and believes in her husband. Keira was an amazing example of this yesterday.

I heard a story about a time that Craig & Amy Groeschel were doing some marriage counseling with another couple. (I'm not sure I'm telling the story exactly right because I heard it second hand.) The wife was being derogatory and disrespectful to her husband which Amy & Craig tried to address as a key issue that needed to change. The woman said to Amy, "Well, sure, if I was married to someone like Pastor Craig it'd be easy for me to respect and encourage him." Amy wisely responded by saying, "Maybe Craig is the man he is today because of all the years I've spent encouraging and speaking hope into him."

Girls, God has given us the sacred calling and significant responsibility of encouraging, respecting, and supporting our husbands. The words we say, the looks we give, and the attitudes we have go deep inside their hearts. There is no greater gift a man could receive than a wife that is cheering him on, believing in him, and engaged in whatever his mission in life is. Conversely, there is nothing that is more burdensome than a wife that speaks death over his dreams, sits on the sidelines with her arms folded, or points out all his flaws.

I want my husband to be all that God created him to be partly because of me, not in spite of me.

As the world looks on may they see in us wives that, like Keira, are standing with our men, believing in them, and working together toward the common vision God has put on our lives.